TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 02 October 2023 DOI 10.3389/fcomm.2023.1201148 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Christian Rathmann, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany REVIEWED BY Yann Cantin, Université Paris 8, France Justin M. Power, The University of Texas at Austin, United States *CORRESPONDENCE Aymen Nefaa aymen.nefaa@etu.univ-amu.fr RECEIVED 06 April 2023 ACCEPTED 09 August 2023 PUBLISHED 02 October 2023 CITATION Nefaa A (2023) Genetic relatedness of Tunisian Sign Language and French Sign Language. Front. Commun. 8:1201148. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2023.1201148 COPYRIGHT © 2023 Nefaa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Genetic relatedness of Tunisian Sign Language and French Sign Language Aymen Nefaa* Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL (UMR 7309), Aix-en-Provence, France This article constitutes the first cognate study aiming at the verification of the genetic link between LSF (French Sign Language) and LST (Tunisian Sign Language) through a lexicostatistical analysis of both sign languages (SLs). To do this, an orthographic/graphic 100 basic lexical items list was utilized to elicit LST lexical items from Tunisian deaf signers with a mean age of 20.86 from three different governorates in the country (Tunis, Nabeul, and Douz). The lists were then compared to LSF lexical signs from two LSF dictionaries (Elix and IVT). Results of the lexicostatistical analysis between the varieties of LST in the three governorates and LSF suggest a proposed distant genetic relationship between the two SLs. KEYWORDS Tunisian Sign Language (LST), French Sign Language (LSF), genetic relatedness, lexicostatistical method, lexicostatistics 1. Introduction Research on LST is at an incubation phase. Although few studies on LST exist, they are mainly centered on its structural and morphological aspects (Mhimdi, 2018), or on intra- intermodal variability (Khayech, 2011). These studies concur on the existence of salient lexical similarities between LST and LSF. In some instances, such similarities render it extremely difficult to distinguish between the two SLs and strongly suggest a considerable genetic link (Khayech, 2011). The rationale for such genetic link is further reinforced through the historical link between the two countries during the 75 years of French colonization. However, no cognate studies were conducted to empirically substantiate the alleged genetic link. 2. Development of LST and the deaf community in Tunisia and the influence of LSF Genetic relationships among major SLs in the United States, Western Europe, and the British colonies were traced with reference to the history of deaf education development in these regions (Al-Fityani and Padden, 2008, p. 12). Indeed, the evolution of SLs as well as the development of deaf communities using and diffusing the SLs in question gravitated for the most part around deaf educational settings in those regions. LST development and diffusion does not structurally differ from the Western European and North American models. Although this development was triggered centuries later in the 1970s, the developmental patterns of LST as well as the Tunisian deaf community follow the same developmental pattern with the deaf educational institutions being at the heart of LST diffusion and deaf community development. Frontiers in Communication 01 frontiersin.org